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Sympathy for the Drummer

Why Charlie Watts Matters

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Sympathy for the Drummer

By: Mike Edison
Narrated by: Mike Edison
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About this listen

 Bloomsbury presents Sympathy for the Drummer, written and read by Mike Edison.

Sympathy for the Drummer: Why Charlie Watts Matters is both a gonzo rush—capturing the bristling energy of the Rolling Stones and the times in which they lived—and a wide-eyed reflection on why the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World needed the world's greatest rock 'n' roll drummer.

Across five decades, Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has had the best seat in the house. Charlie Watts, the anti-rock star—an urbane jazz fan with a dry wit and little taste for the limelight—was witness to the most savage years in rock history, and emerged a hero, a warrior poet. With his easy swing and often loping, uneven fills, he found nuance in a music that often had little room for it, and along with his greatest ally, Keith Richards, he gave the Stones their swaggering beat. While others battled their drums, Charlie played his modest kit with finesse and humility, and yet his relentless grooves on the nastiest hard-rock numbers of the era ("Gimme Shelter," "Street Fighting Man," "Brown Sugar," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," etc.) delivered a dangerous authenticity to a band that on their best nights should have been put in jail.

Author Mike Edison, himself a notorious raconteur and accomplished drummer, tells a tale of respect and satisfaction that goes far beyond drums, drumming, and the Rolling Stones, ripping apart the history of rock'n'roll, and celebrating sixty years of cultural upheaval. He tears the sheets off of the myths of music making, shredding the phonies and the frauds, and unifies the frayed edges of disco, punk, blues, country, soul, jazz, and R&B—the soundtrack of our lives.

Highly opinionated, fearless, and often hilarious, Sympathy is an unexpected treat for music fans and pop culture mavens, as edgy and ribald as the Rolling Stones at their finest, never losing sight of the sex and magic that puts the roll in the rock—the beat, that crazy beat!—and the man who drove the band, their true engine, the utterly irreplaceable Charlie Watts.©2019 Rowman & Littlefield (P)2020 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Entertainment & Celebrities History & Criticism Music Witty
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I came to this with uncertain expectations, and was pleasantly surprised. (I still can't believe I binged the whole thing in one five hour go). Edison is a drummer himself, and he really seems to know drumming, both in a historical and hands on sense. It's very refreshing, in that vein, that's he's not afraid of getting technical, and, while he explains, he never dumbs down. Although this is a book that would presumably attract mostly Stones fans, he does pause, when necessary, to provide a bit of background. But he's not afraid of mixing opinion with fact. He's got something of a musical Anthony Bourdain thing going on, both with his style and the strength (as well as the sometimes in your face nature) of his views, and that's what makes the book truly worth a read/listen. All throughout, his love for the music, and genuine appreciation for Charlie, as a drummer and as a person, shines through.

Word to the wise, though. Listen to a sample of the audiobook before you buy, and be sure that you can live with Edison's voice, and often bombastic style of delivery, for nearly 5 hours. Plus a good amount of drumming and riffs inserted to prove points.

Unexpectedly Great!

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